Game 7: Columbus at Minnesota|8:00pm EST FSO|

And when the team MOST needed him to make a big save, after a defensive breakdown led to a one on one in the 3rd, he did not. That's what all of the bickering about Mason was about tonight. I admit my disappointment in his ability to come through in the clutch jaded my initial evaluation of his overall performance.

I don't know if this is completely fair. The defense completely botched the play on the last goal but Mason did come up big on the penalty shot. It would've been nice for both to have been stopped but anytime you have a forward coming in 1 on 1 with a goalie the shooter has the advantage.

Not to put words in his mouth, but I feel that his frustration and many fans frustration is completely reasonable and warranted. Its been 12 years without a single playoff victory, yet we continue down the same path.

I think what frustrates most fans, and myself included, is that it does not take this long to rebuild. Over the course of the past decade we have seen teams worse than us, then become better than us, then bottom out, only to become better than us again. The Edmonton Oilers come to mind.

We have also seen multiple teams that were serious Cup contenders at the beginning of our franchise, bottom out and finish worse than us in the standings, and are now back in the playoffs again. Two examples would be the Lightning and Penguins.

Point is. Other teams rebuild not only quicker but more efficiently than us. Youre not this bad, this long, without there being a major problem.

Okay, so how long does it take? And how long does it take when starting with close to nothing?

You cite Pittsburgh. I'll point out that Pittsburgh had an obscene amount of good fortune in being able to do the following:
1) Draft Crosby, Malkin, Fleury, and Staal in consecutive years.
2) Get multiple productive players from the 2000-06 later rounds, who at least had trade value if they didn't actually end up producing for Pittsburgh.
3) Have an NHL roster in 2004 loaded with clearly non-NHL players who could be immediately cast aside without a second thought.
4) Have an immediate draw (in Crosby) for free agents.

You cite Tampa Bay. Tampa won a Stanley Cup in 2004. If you go before that, they....
- Drafted Lecavalier and Richards, and got St. Louis and Boyle for basically nothing.
- Were extraordinarily active in the trade market. A huge number did absolutely nothing, but they had some gems.
- Since then, they've gone completely to the bottom, drafted Stamkos, and may have re-emerged. Time will tell.

Let's throw Chicago in there too. They bottomed out and got Kane and Toews during those years, but before that, a good 65% of their Stanley Cup team had already been drafted and was developing. When Chicago picked Kane, they already had:
- Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook, Adam Burish, Dustin Byfuglien, Troy Brouwer, Brian Bickell, Dave Bolland, Niklas Hjalmarsson, and Tuomo Ruutu (later traded for Andrew Ladd). Matt Ellison had also already been traded for Patrick Sharp.

Why do I bring up Chicago? Because that's a list of who they had on their roster in June of 2007. Here's who Columbus had, and you can add in Brassard, Mason, and Russell as far as guys who hadn't yet suited up.

Completely botching seven consecutive drafts, as Doug MacLean did, is a huge part of what we see today. Look at 2003, when we saw Zherdev and Fritsche come to Columbus while Weber and Suter went to Nashville, Carter and Richards to Philly, and Perry and Getzlaf to Anaheim. Look at what Chicago was developing even as their actual NHL roster was crashing and burning. Look at all the pieces St. Louis had even as they were finishing dead last.

It's foolish to basically shrug and say, "Yeah, well, that was a long time ago." Columbus was much more comparable to Atlanta, whose perennial struggles were a direct result of poor drafting....of course, they drafted better than MacLean ever did. Every poor trade, every premier player not drafted, all accumulates. It's not anywhere close to as simple as "Team X did it, so therefore we should be able to do it just as quickly". Compare the rosters and farm systems in 2007 to any other team, then we'll talk.

This isn't college football, where two excellent recruiting classes can carry an also-ran into the BCS within four years. It's not the NFL, where a single strong draft and a couple of free agent signings can turn a 3-13 team into a Super Bowl champion. The NHL is a lot closer to MLB. Unless you're drafting a truly elite prospect, no one you take is even going to be in the league inside of three years, let alone be an All-Star. Take a look at the Pirates, who have flirted with the top of the NL Central the last two years and look to be improving every single year (79-83 last year being their best mark since 1997, and tying for the best since 1992). When was their GM hired? 2007. What did he have on the roster and farm system? More than what Dougie left in Columbus.

I just want to know at what point is Howson finally held accountable by some. In no other NHL city would he still be employed.

If Johansen Moore and Atkinson play up to expectations you won't see Howson going anywhere anytime soon. Also acquiring bobrovsky for what they did was actually a steal. Nikitin is still learning but he's getting there. Everyone knew this is still going to be another turn around year. We lost our franchise player and brought in 4 new faces. With no training camp to speak of, no exhibition games for players to get their skates under them. And Murray was expected to be on the team so who knows where we could be at with him in the lineup, look at what dougie Hamilton is doing for Boston. Not saying Murray would be doing that, but he would help the club out tremendously. If not on the ice, off the ice. The D would know there's a kid waiting to take there spot if they **** up, with Savard, not so much.. We are not even 1/4 of the way into the season. Unless he makes some bad decisions behind JDs back or really pisses him off I don't think he's going anywhere anytime soon.

If Johansen Moore and Atkinson play up to expectations you won't see Howson going anywhere anytime soon. Also acquiring bobrovsky for what they did was actually a steal. Nikitin is still learning but he's getting there. Everyone knew this is still going to be another turn around year. We lost our franchise player and brought in 4 new faces. With no training camp to speak of, no exhibition games for players to get their skates under them. And Murray was expected to be on the team so who knows where we could be at with him in the lineup, look at what dougie Hamilton is doing for Boston. Not saying Murray would be doing that, but he would help the club out tremendously. If not on the ice, off the ice. The D would know there's a kid waiting to take there spot if they **** up, with Savard, not so much.. We are not even 1/4 of the way into the season. Unless he makes some bad decisions behind JDs back or really pisses him off I don't think he's going anywhere anytime soon.

With 1/3 of those being selected in the 1st round! There's a chance our NHL roster has anywhere from 3-6 new faces trying out for the team next year who didn't this year(Murray, Dansk, Korpisalo, +3 1sts) not mention Jenner, Chaput, Kubalik, JAM. Who knows how Cam and Ryjo finish the season. The future is definitely brighter than it has been in awhile. We have some exciting prospects, and for once we're not the only ones who think so.

With 1/3 of those being selected in the 1st round! There's a chance our NHL roster has anywhere from 3-6 new faces trying out for the team next year who didn't this year(Murray, Dansk, Korpisalo, +3 1sts) not mention Jenner, Chaput, Kubalik, JAM. Who knows how Cam and Ryjo finish the season. The future is definitely brighter than it has been in awhile. We have some exciting prospects, and for once we're not the only ones who think so.

I'm still trying to sort thru how every sees Mason as the worst goalie ever and Bob as a saviour. Bob has had 2 decent games and they happened to be on nights when our team managed to score 2 goals in regulation (which as bad as it is to say is a good offensive night for us).
Mason allowed 3 goals last night to a pretty good team and all the complaining is about his perfermance.
Folks wake up. Bottom line in the NHL if you score 3 goals you will on average get a point (should in theory take you to OT with an opportunity to get the 2nd). if you get 4+ goals on most nights you should get 2 points. 0-2 goals on most nights won't get you anywhere. Focus on the lack of offense. If we are losing games 4-3 then I would buy into more of the goaltending sucks.

We've gone thru the same things in the past blaming Denis, Pascal, etc for softies. My prediction is next season those that are consistently saying "Mason sucks" will be calling for Bob's head on a platter.

I often wonder what the communication is like between Mason and the defensemen. Why is getting hung out to dry so much more often than our other goalies?

Lee just my opinion but I swear the last few years that the team has played harder when someone other that Mason is in net (like Garon in the past).
As much as I try to support Mason I don't think too many of his teammates like him. Once he gives up a goal the team quits. I don't see that when Bob (or Garon or any of other backups) has played, the team tries to pick them up.
Also you read some of the gossip late last season about Mason being "uncoachable" and he "got a big head" and maybe his attitude did turn off his teammates.
Now that doesn't excuse the 18 skaters in front of him for doing it (that is something that happens in pee wee football where kids quit playing if a guy they don't like is the QB or RB not to pro athletes).

You realize that it wont be much longer until Howson has been in the job as long as MacLean was. How many more years until HOWSON becomes accountable?

The problem with both guys was they never let the team get to the bottom. They both kept on overpaying for just enough talent to keep us as the 3rd-8th worst team. There is no payoff for being below average in the NHL. You want to be average (and with 16 of 30 teams making the playoffs an average team makes the playoffs) or you want to be bad to give yourself an opportunity at the top pick or two in the draft.

We tried to build around Nash for way too long. That was apparent we weren't going anywhere with his as the best player on the team (he wasn't elite enough to carry us to the playoffs, like some other guys), then we kept dipping into the free agent pool, we should have played the kids, gathered some real high end talent, but now here we are in 2013 with only potential high end talent (guys like RyJo, Moore), a few 3rd line forwards (granted more depth than the past), 2 goalies coming off terrible seasons last year, solid d-men and still with no hope of the playoffs. This could be any random year since our inception - not enough high end talent, a few veterans scattered around, not enough goal scoring (I still think the only year we were above average in goal scoring was when we has Sandy, Ray Whitney and Nash as our 3 LWs, Nash's rookie year).
Now the only thing fans are clinging to is JD. It use to be Nash or Hitchcock or getting rid of Doug or Mason (for the 1 year). They just give us a glimmer and most of us clamor to it.

at the end of this year, we'll give all our players stanley cup trophys and then throw them a pizza party.

Glad to see you have an idea on how to temper expectations. If you expected much more than this, perhaps you should Google delusional.

Now, this was a much stronger performance than the last two road games. I expect us to get stronger on the road as the season goes along. If this team collapses again, then I expect to see a strong reaction from the front office.

A team with character does not consistently lose games in regulation that it is either leading or tied in the 3rd period.

You have a point there. We are making many mental mistakes. Having said that, it would be hard to judge the character of this team as we rarely are in either situation you defined.

Is the character of this team judged my Moore or Mason? Probably not. Is the team judged by coming back from early deficits? More likely.

We can beat them up all we like. The building of a good team isn't done over night. Despite the hate being thrown around here by some, there is progress being made over last season. When we won late last season, the games didn't mean anything. There was no pressure. There is pressure now. The team is responding. Now it's time to clean up the play in all three zones and start to establish more of a forecheck. From there, start to take leads. After that, start to hold them. From there, if you lose do it in overtime.

It is going to take time. I expect some progress this season, I don't expect to see enough of it to make much of a difference in the standings in relation to making the playoffs.

Ultimately, we as fans wanted to get rid of Priest. He is gone. Sadly now, we have to wait on Davidson. That is what we wanted. Now we have to accept that he is going to be patient and there are no quick fixes.

Ultimately what I am telling you, no we probably won't be able to celebrate any real accomplishments this season. However your judgements are pretty much irrelevant. Scouting will be done, players will move on if they don't fit in with the new identity we are trying to establish. That is only done with time.

I don't know if this is completely fair. The defense completely botched the play on the last goal but Mason did come up big on the penalty shot. It would've been nice for both to have been stopped but anytime you have a forward coming in 1 on 1 with a goalie the shooter has the advantage.

Is it completely fair to blame Moore and Tyutin? They had the outside guys covered, one on one, and a trailing forward came up the middle, split them, and went in on Mason alone. Should there have been a backchecking forward responsible for covering the third man on the attack? I suppose a lack of communication/familiarity prevented the defensemen from knowing who was to leave their man to cover the middle, but might not part of the fault be elsewhere? As for Mason, that was a tough spot. Had he made the stop, it would have been great. Not making it, in that situation, cannot be considered a major fault on his part. I'm not making excuses for any of the three, just wondering if there might have been another factor in giving up the third goal.

Lee just my opinion but I swear the last few years that the team has played harder when someone other that Mason is in net (like Garon in the past).
As much as I try to support Mason I don't think too many of his teammates like him. Once he gives up a goal the team quits. I don't see that when Bob (or Garon or any of other backups) has played, the team tries to pick them up.

I didn't think the team "quit". They fought back from down two goals.

It hardly matters who's in goal when we're averaging 1.85 goals per game and your PP is something like 1-23 over the last few games. I don't think any goalie in the league would have winning record with this offense.

1-23 PP...assuming no dumb penalties by Brassard or Dorsett while on PP, that's 46 minutes or 75% of a full game on the PP and only 1 goal.

I will say mason has played far better this season. It would be nice if he could step up and make the big saves when the Defense leaves him high and dry but its going to be hard for him to get any momentum and confidence when the defense in front of him sucks so bad.

I really am starting to believe if Mason had a team in front of him playing well, he could turn this around. Instead we have a guy who has played relatively well in 3 games and hasn't gotten enough help to get a W. A team with a few less defensive breakdowns and a little more goal scoring help would have Mason at a no worse than a 2-1 record and everyone would be off his case. Mason is not a a point where he can steal games but he can be solid if the rest of the team stops sucking.

I will say mason has played far better this season. It would be nice if he could step up and make the big saves when the Defense leaves him high and dry but its going to be hard for him to get any momentum and confidence when the defense in front of him sucks so bad.

We still have a ways to go with this guy. Last night he gave up rebound after rebound. We've seen Mason play good in stretches over the years. You know, 3 or 4 games here, 2 or 3 there. At an even higher level than this.

I'm not about to say he's played "well". However he is starting to approach tolerable backup status. We need more history before we can even declare that.

Mason is the scapegoat for some. I, for one, have seen improved play by Mase in this young season.

The team is averaging less then 2 goals a game. At some point, the lions share of the focus needs to fall upon Umberger, Brassard and Dubinsky.

Columbus is in the bottom 3rd of the league in shots allowed per game, and the bottom 6 in shots taken per game. I expect this trend to continue and by the end of the season the CBJ will probably be close to trailing the league in both categories. And I dont care who your goalie is, if these numbers continue to trend, we are looking at a lottery pick.

To my surprise, I find myself agreeing with Mayor Bee. I do not understand how anyone expected any more than what we are seeing. After the clearing out of the "name" vets, Vermette, Carter, Nash, etc, it was pretty obvious we were going thru a real, actual, dog gone honest rebuild that was focused upon creating an atmosphere that focused upon hard work and a competitive, "no quit" attitude and younger players. That is exactly what we have.

It was also pretty obvious that we would be lacking significant offensive talent and that we would be a low scoring "score by committee" offense until we bring in real offensive talent during the rebuild. And that is what we have.

They have played hard, they lack offensive talent, and they have, hopefully a bushel full of reasonably high draft picks to use in what is supposed to be a deep draft. They brought in a pro in JD to oversee this process. To me the train is back on the tracks and I am content to wait until we find out where it takes us in a couple of years.